It’s a long time since anybody described Currys, or Dixons as it was in a former incarnation, as a jewel of the London stock market. The electricals retailer was relegated from the FTSE 100 index as long ago as 2017, soon after its foolish value-destroying merger with Carphone Warehouse. These days it exists in that sub-£1bn category of under-analysed stocks that struggle to generate investor interest, at least from traditional funds that used to be the bedrock of the market.
A takeover by private equity or an overseas predator has looked a possible plotline for a while, given how far the value has dropped from the £3.8bn at the time of the Carphone combo. There was no great shock in the news that the US hedge fund Elliott, a happy owner of the Waterstones bookshop chain, made an offer at the end of last week. The appearance of JD.com, one of China’s answers to Amazon, as a potential rival bidder is more surprising but, again, one can see the logic. Currys, despite it all, still generates annual revenues of almost £10bn and enjoys market-leading positions in the UK and Scandinavia, which is enough to get on to international radars.
